Chillin'

First nice day in a long time with no mosquitoes...nice for sitting outside with the pooches. 

I still haven't completely recovered from the house sale in NJ. We were able to pay off our home equity loan and the loan on the truck. Banking life will be much less complicated, soon enough.

Still waiting for the dust to settle.

Done deal

Keith Haring-inspired mural in the background,
perfectly framing Tom and Roberta's heads

Yes it is finally a done deal. We finally closed on the NJ house on Friday! And this is why we are quite happy with our decision to sell it and move up here. All blue skies and peace. This is not New Jersey.

We took a walk to the far side of our property. Our humble abode is just under the dog?-shaped cloud in the right third of the pic.

And we have several good musically talented friends up here who have been encouraging both of us—really! I know! I'm surprised too—to play and sing some music up here. This from Pioneer Park in Cooperstown on Saturday. Tim's guitar in the pic, and Kathy on back-up vocals. 

Go ahead. I am laughing at that too.

Happy Birthday, Bro! And Happy Sellers Are We!

What better way to celebrate Little Brother's birthday than by FINALLY selling our house in Palmyra! Done deal as of 2 pm today.

Our personal celebration is awaiting my attention. Strip steaks from The Green Cow, and a nice bottle of red from Don's nephew Billy!

Gotta go. Hungry and thirsty.

Nothing in particular

Young Roo (as opposed to Big Roo) on an apple tree branch

I have no good subject matter for a post today, just trying to distract myself from the ongoing painful process of selling a house. Fingers crossed, maybe this week.

We went from hot and humid not normal NY summer weather, to brilliant blue sky seems like fall summer weather on the day after we had our AC unit installed. Not a bad trade. 

Last night Hub and I watched the 1932 version of Scarface with Paul Muni, George Raft, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, and Boris Karloff. I thought the women actors stole the show, although it's hard not to love Boris Karloff, even in a small role.

Who knew that a movie, inspired by the novel which was inspired by the gangster Al Capone, could be both humorous and violent, and still watchable?

The cat on my knee, and the cat on the sofa behind me were not interested in the shoot 'em up movie, but there was this beautiful almost full moon in the window above Willie's head that stole my attention. Is that Venus to the right? 

Calling on Starman Frank to answer that.

Zelda and the apples

Zelda is the newest addition to the family, although I am still trying to keep The Husband from making her part of the indoor family. She appeared over a year ago, and has been crossing the busy road to visit us a few times a day.

We caught her and had her spayed this week (which is where I got the pupper video I posted on Facebook. We caught Dr Julie on a busy day in surgery.)

Lots of love and attention and food, a nice little crate for a bed, plenty of goat milk when she wants it, and maybe when we set her free from the crate she will decide to stay.

Did I mention it's apple season! We may not have the prettiest apples, but we have more than we could ever use and they taste really good. I have 13 pints of apple butter and a quart of applesauce already done. 

Husband just picked at least twice the amount of apples that I picked this morning (top pic). I guess there are a few more pints to make, and maybe a pie or 2.

 

The water

It was a perfect afternoon for a boat ride on Canadarago Lake with Captain Greg. We took a tour of the whole lake passing my cousins (the Smiths) and Greg's brother and his wife (Tim's cousins), and several other folks out enjoying an almost cloudless day on the lake.

Of course a few clouds would have made a much prettier sunset, but we were not in a mood to complain. Other folks come up here for vacation, we are blessed to live here.

 

The sky

Even before the leaves turn, there is plenty of color this time of year. For right now, it is mostly goldenrod putting on a show, but soon the purple asters will join in. And that blue sky isn't always bright blue, that's why I have to sit there and watch it change.

This week at The Freeman's Journal, we are supposed to write reviews of fun Fall activities in the area. This will be a tough job for me, since my favorite Fall activity is sitting in the yard and watching the sun go down with a glass of wine. I know, not exactly active, and not exactly something I want to encourage other people to do.

Later today we are going out with Cousin Greg on his boat on Canadarago Lake. Another Fall activity that doesn't involve any activity on my part. Getting lazy in my old age just taking in all the beautiful color up here!

The wind and the air

Wednesday was not a good day for South Jersey and Philly. Several tornadoes blasted through the area, flooding streets and ripping homes apart. As far as I know, all my friends and family are safe, and I think the old house in Palmyra is safe as well.

This photo was taken by a driver at the toll booths for the Burlington Bristol Bridge. Imagine being the toll taker stuck in that one open booth!

I was just on that very narrow (it's scary when it's clear) bridge 2 weeks ago!

The road off to the right goes down to the Delaware River by St. Mary's Hall-Doane Academy where we had our wedding reception. I can only imagine the damage to that beautiful old building.

On a happier note, we finally had our air-conditioning unit installed yesterday. Yay! The coldest day so far this summer, with a high of 63° and a low of 46°, and we are ready for the next heat wave—next July.

I caved and put the heat on last night. I swore I would never do that in September, but my toes were cold and I was too lazy to fire up the woodstove. 

Porch music and critter updates

Our thanks to the Rigbys for loaning us their wonderful porch on their wonderful house for Play Music on the Porch Day Worldwide on Saturday. Kathy, Tim, Tom, Roberta, and Wayne (L-R) were singing and playing for all the world (6 people) to hear. Much fun was had by all!

Annie and Franklin Chapter 2: Annie the goat who was never bred is now producing milk from both udders, so she needs some more help from Farmer Tim while her owners are away. Franklin, her donkey husband, was pushing me away while I was trying to take some photos.

The chicks are finally big enough to set free. Momma kept them close to the coop on the first day, Sunday, but the next day she had them all the way back to the goat sheds. She magically got them all back in the coop and up on the top roost with her for the night.

Since she only wanted to raise 3 of the 6 that I bought just for her, I am going to give the other 3 to Annie and Franklin's parents. They lost a few chickens the last time they went away. Then I won't have to worry about how to train them to free range with the rest.

Bro and sis

This is the little bro and sis trying to say goodbye as I was heading to New Jersey on Friday afternoon. Look at those ears!

I got to see my own little bro and sis on my trip back to the old homestead—the old homestead in Willingboro, the town where Hub and I both grew up; and the old homestead in Palmyra, where Hub and I spent our first 13 years together.

There were a few hiccups in my short visit. Ten minutes before I was supposed to be meeting the buyers in Palmyra, I realized I left the house key in Willingboro, and I couldn't figure out how to open the realtor's lock box even though I had the code. Then I had the brilliant idea of heating up the Georgetti's lasagna I bought in Palmyra to bring back to Willingboro for dinner, not thinking I had no oven mitts, and no easy way to bring an overflowing hot juicy lasagna in a flimsy foil pan back home. 

I managed—no breaking and entering, no lasagnas were harmed. 

The rest of the trip went very well. The young couple who are buying the house seem to already love it. Zach and a buddy of his helped me clear out the basement and are disposing of some of the toxic waste (old paint, motor oil, furniture stripper, etc.) that I thought I would be stuck with forever. They saved me numerous trips up and down the basement stairs and out to the curb. 

I have mixed feelings about leaving my favorite old house, but I was mostly relieved and happy to wave goodbye. Tropical storm Henri darkened the skies and did all the crying for me.

On my way to NJ

Just a cute pic of Willie in the laundry basket...for no good reason

I am headed to New Jersey today for a last visit to my favorite old house in Palmyra. We still have to make our way through a few hurdles to get to closing in September.

As a way of saying goodbye to my favorite old house in Palmyra, I will be introducing her to her new caretakers, Zach and Krista. I am turning over all of the deed research that I did. I was able to follow the deeds back to 1833, but I am fairly certain the house was built around 1885. 

I am also giving them a little box of all the goodies I dug up in the backyard over the years. All the goodies, except I am keeping the glass marbles that Albert Heeter, as a boy, used to shoot with a slingshot at the dogs trying to get to his female collie. His brother Richard, in his 60s (?) at the time I talked to him, was still upset because they were his marbles, not Albert's.

Their mother, Mary Viola Kooker Heeter, sounds like a very interesting woman. She inherited the house in November 1920 from Agnes M. Kooker (her mother? who bought it in 1902). Mary died there August 17, 1977. Several single women have their names on these deeds including me—I bought the house in 1992. I hope we did Mary Viola and Agnes proud by taking care of their old house, and I hope they approve of the newest caretakers.

Not all these marbles were Richard's, some were mine and my brothers'.